Capital: Albany: Adirondack Group Likes Bush's Alternative Plan by Paul Ertelt, Times Albany Correspondent 

First published: Saturday, April 6, 2002 
ALBANY - The Bush administration wants to scrap a rule that requires power companies to add pollution controls when they upgrade old, coal-burning plants, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd 
Whitman said Friday.

Ms. Whitman said that under the president's Clear Skies proposal, which would require sharp cuts in the power-plant emissions that cause acid rain, that rule, known as "new source review," would be redundant."It would be unnecessary because we would be getting better cuts, faster under Clear Skies," she said.

Although environmentalists have long suspected the president wanted to get rid of new source review, Ms. Whitman's statement was the first unequivocal acknowledgement of the administration's position. Ms. Whitman said the administration does not want to eliminate new source review for other industries.

Judith A. Enck, policy adviser to New York Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, said the president's plan is a sop to power companies. "If you simply enforce existing law, you get deeper cuts in air pollution and you get them quicker," Ms. Enck said. "There is absolutely no reason to gut new source review other than that the coal industry and utilities 
don't like it."

When the federal Clean Air Act was approved in 1970, existing coal-burning electric plants were exempted from pollution-control requirements under the theory that those plants would eventually shut down. Under the new source review provision of that law, power companies that make significant modifications to grandfathered plants must install 
pollution-control devices.

That provision was the basis for lawsuits filed by Mr. Spitzer and others against plants that allegedly made modifications but had not added the required pollution controls.

Ms. Enck said elimination of new source review probably wouldn't affect those cases, but it could affect future cases.

John F. Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said new source review has been effective in bringing power companies to the table, but it is a long and cumbersome process that has gotten few real results. On the other hand, the president's plan will go a long way in reducing acid rain that has killed hundreds of lakes and ponds in the Adirondacks, he said.

Under the Clear Skies proposal, power plants would be required to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 73 percent by 2018. It would require a 67 percent cut in nitrogen oxide emissions and a 69 percent cut in mercury emissions over that period.

Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides contribute to acid rain, and nitrogen oxides are also components of smog. Mercury accumulates in the flesh of fish and can damage the internal organs and nervous systems of people, animals and birds that eat contaminated fish.

Ms. Whitman said the emission reductions would apply to all power plants, even older plants that were exempted under the Clean Air Act. The Adirondack Council, which has made fighting acid rain one of its key issues, supports the president's plan, which puts it at odds with some other environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Environmental Advocates.

"Bush's proposal offers too little, too late for power-plant clean up," said Anne Reynolds of Environmental Advocates.But the president's proposal gives companies an incentive to meet emission goals ahead of schedule, Mr. Sheehan said. Plants that meet or exceed emission goals will accumulate pollution credits that can be used for other plants or sold, he said.

Ms. Reynolds also criticized the president's plan for failing to address carbon dioxide pollution, which environmentalists say contributes to global warming.

But Mr. Sheehan said the ongoing debate over carbon dioxide is holding up action on acid rain legislation.

"Time is of the essence with acid rain," Mr. Sheehan said. "Every day it gets a little worse."